Introductions

I figured the best place to start with this group would be an introduction thread... tell everyone here a little about yourself and why joining this group interested you. I'll go first here...

My name is Troy and I'm a Deaf single dad currently living in Minnesota. I started this group mostly in hopes to reach out to other deaf atheists who joined but also figured it would be good to have anyone here that knows sign language or even is interested in learning sign language.

Welcome to this group! I also live in Rochester, NY, so you're not the only one here from Rochester (I'm deaf and currently a student at RIT). If you're still living in Rochester, you should consider joining Rochester Atheists too (they have a group here on A/N too), there is an ASL interpreter in that group too, and I'm also in that group.

This has been a pretty quiet group for a while. I also recently joined the Deaf Freethinkers group on FB, and right now it's much more lively than this group. In spite of the name of that FB group, there are hearing people there too; I was told by the host of that group that hearing folks make up one-third of the group there (also including a CODA like yourself who recently joined). So I'd like to suggest to you and everybody else who's in this group on A/N to join that group as well! Don't leave this group, but join that group too!

Hi Vanessa :-) Welcome to the group. Thank you for sharing a bit of your background. I'm sorry I haven't been very active in this group so I didn't welcome you sooner.

I became an atheist as a teenager before estranging myself from my adoptive family so I didn't really experience being looked down on as a deaf adult in a hearing congregation. But the church I attended as a child was a hearing church and I did NOT have an interpreter. So I was pretty much bored out of my mind thru the entire service. But that kind of attitude towards deaf people is pretty common among hearing people who aren't really more intimately familiar with deaf people in any group setting.

Hello! I guess I'm next. I'm deaf and teach at Gallaudet University. I don't know if I'm an atheist but I know I'm not a Christian per se. I have too many doubts. When my Christian friends ask me specifically, I just say I've had too much education -- so I have doubts. I do like Native Americans' perspective on the universe -- to value/cherish/preserve our Earth -- although I'd like to avoid "deities" unless it's just personifying animals and such. I also feel that my recently deceased husband haunted my house at one point although I can't verify that the woman who said she "saw" him never saw him in person or saw a photo of him. Anyway, I'm guessing there aren't any other members in the D.C. area?? I know of one other deaf person in Santa Fe but he doesn't go online much.

Thank you for your response. I've just reviewed my comment of August 16. I need to get this woman to tell me that she did "see" him. She hasn't confirmed it. So, I can't say or imply that I believe in ghosts. Also, I see that I made a typo: "never" in line 6. That should be "ever".

I see that you're in Texas. I used to live and work (at SWCID in the 80s) in Big Spring, Texas. Did you go to college late or go back to college for another degree? In any case, congrats on getting your degree or on getting it soon.

I like computers also. In fact, I wouldn't mind changing from teaching to computers if I could have one month off in the summer and two weeks off at xmas and work a 4-day week. I could retire now with a federal pension anyway.

Actually, I should explain.... My husband died in October 2010 and kind of left me in the lurch re: a new retirement home in Olympia, WA. When I got back to my MD home, I converted my finished basement into an apt, rented it out, and also got a roommate upstairs in January. This roomie surprisingly stayed in her room all the time and never cooked. She only left to go to a 3-month internship five days a week. So, we never talked and I doubt she ever saw a photo of my husband or ever met him. All of a sudden, she emailed me to ask me what my husband usually wore. I responded via email that he liked T-shirts and denims but he was a natty dresser when called for. She responded via email that she had "seen" something/someone in the kitchen and in the hallway -- in a plaid, buttoned-up top, tall, but not that tall, and slender. That's was my husband to a T. He had many,many plaid shirts and jackets. I was nonplussed.

I have never believed in a God or an afterlife. When Jerry, my hubby, died, he was gone, period. I miss him very, very much and it would be so helpful if I had some hope of seeing him again or of there being an afterlife. I admit I'm kind of a sourpuss because I'm absolutely terrified of dying and being no more.

Just about the last thing Jerry told me was that he was sorry. I had agreed to retire a little early. I had agreed to marry him. I had agreed to buy a retirement home in his native state of WA (a long, long way from my friends and family), and the grounds of our new place would take our remaining lifetimes to prettify (English ivy, non-native blackberry, monster buttercup all over, etc.). If he actually was haunting my MD home, it was probably because he was so concerned about leaving me alone with two homes to take care of. I had warned him that it would be a LOT of work for the two of us, having two homes.And, all of a sudden, he was gone (pancreatic cancer, stage 4). He was 74 but had the looks, energy, and goals of a man in his early 50s.

So, although I miss Jerry soooo much, I need to make the most of my remaining years because there's nothing after that, even though it's taken a lot of willpower to get through the past two years. So, I've been trying out DSC, the online match site for deafies. It hasn't been so great though because I just became 60 No one wants someone who's 60 even if she looks like and acts like she's 45-50.

So, there you have it. The roomie (woman who's probably a medium) moved out in a huff in late February when I kept after her about her running a heater in her room and leaving it running with no one in the house. I later emailed her to ask her about "seeing" Jerry but she's not touched upon it. (I forgot to mention that she said in her first email that she sometimes "saw" her grandmother at her home in Chicago.).